Huntsville gazette., 1887-07-02

had heard from all the meeting houses.
He met Joe Slocum away up town, and
when Joe stood still, and began to hold
his breath hard. and grow red in the
face, Uncle Jed grew pretty red him
self, and breathed hard. and winked,
and ratified his keys, and said:
mo! no! Keep still. Don't tell me
word. Not now Mustn't know any
thing about it. We must all hold in
till after the Fourth"
Something like fortnight before that
the trustees had held q meeting. and
had decided that the cannon should not
be fired on the Fourth of July. 1t was
Deacon Pettigrew's work. and it only
passed by one majority. and Uncle Jed
had said as much to Joe Slocum next
morning, and he had added:
s'Your father and l did our best, but
we were outvoted. Sorry, my boy
sorry. Used to be boy myself. The
cannon-house IL be locked up from
you, Joe my boy, and the keys hang
ing behind the door now in my offic e
back of the store, and old Pettigrew
said he'd come and get it, and make
sure it was all right, and have a watch
kept, and there's no chance for you.
Sorry"
He looked as if he was, and Joe SYM
pathised with him a good deal, and SO
did Ned Bright and George Keep and a
lot of other fellows, and it was not long
before he had one hundred and twenty
eight sympathizers-may be one hun
dred and twenty-nine-all boys.
When Deacon Pettigrew at last went
to Barber's store for the key of the
cannon-house, he found it in its old
place behind the office door, just where
it had hung for twenty years, or may
be thirty years, and Uncle Jedediah
was tremendously busy with some GUS
toners, and only nodded, and said:
Il wish you'd keep it and take care of
it. Some Of the boys might get it"
There was nothing double or dis
honest about Uncle Jed. Every body
knew that. He was as simple as a
child, unless he was buying or selling
something, and neither he nor any
body else-that is, not anybody old
enough for their age to tell on them
had been up to see procession on the
green one morning.
1t was one morning, about four days
after the trustees voted not to let the
cannon be fired, and the procession
walked across the green at little
after three o'clock. The village itself
all except the procession-wasp pretty
soundly asleep at that hour, and there
was no kind of noise made to wake it
up. If it had been a delegation'of cats
on their way to attend convention of
mice, it could not have been quieter.
Bill Hitchcock all but choked himself
to death trying not to cough.
The night was as dark as pocket,
but there was light coming through
the cracks of the cannon-house for a
few minutes. Then the light went out,
and great deal of something or other
came away through the front door. 1t
was the procession, and it had hold Of
ropes, and it was in remarkable
hurry. 1t went right across the green
and down the main street. 1t marched
for half mile; until it came to the
bars of the lot just this side of Rigg's S
mill, where you go down toward the
middle of the mill-pond. 1t is deeper
water there than it is anywhere else,
and nobody ever goes there. The
procession halted at the very brink of
the mill-pond.
bill. do you s'pose we can ever
haul her out again?"
"Well, Ned, if we can't do it, yoke
of steers can. Let her runn'
Something on wheels went suddenly
trundling down the steep bank, and
disappeared in the mill-pond alto
gether. "
"She didn't make much of splash,
after all.
"She'n make noise enough the night
before the Fourth.
Its more'n ten feet deep right
where she's lying"
They'll never dream of hunting for
her there"
Back, now, boys. Take your
brooms Fix the grass so there won't t
be any wheel tracks. Play Indian
now"
So they played Indian and hid that
trail, and the whole procession went
back to the green and broke up, and
Joe Slocum was at BARRIERS store next
morning buying something, and Uncle
Jed came out of his Office and walked
away to the front. He wasn't in the
office at all when Joe looked in and
asked the book-keeper where he was.
There had not been so deep an in
terest taken in any Fourth of July in
Homer for ever so long, and most OF
it centered about the cannon.
Of one thing the whole village was
dead certain, and that was that the
relic of Burgoyne's army was gone,